I still remember the day we moved to a new city…I had no idea where to buy what from. I did not know anyone around. I could not step out of the house to go exploring because too many things were going on in the house. If it weren’t for Amazon and Flipkart, I would not know where to get my groceries, the broom, household cleaning agents, folding chairs - you name it and I had ordered it online.

Only thing was…my heart broke every time I received a delivery…it was wrapped in plastics, sometimes bubble wrapped when there was no need, most deliveries contained multiple print outs of the bill and left me with loads of paper, cartons and plastic covers to dispose off. Someone would hopefully recycle them - or maybe not.

Amazon and Flipkart, you are both amazing organisations! You have changed the face of retail in India and you have empowered people like me to shop from anywhere without stepping out of the house. If you can employ sooo many people, make sooo many manufacturers get a platform, create suchhhh a sophisticated distribution network, you can suuuurely do this.

You can commit to make all your deliveries eco-friendly and reduce the use of plastics by 50% in your packaging.

YES, YOU CAN.

You are and you have some of the best minds in the country working for you so there might be many more innovative solutions you have in mind but here are some of demands:

Stop packaging everything in plastics. A toothbrush or a bedsheet don’t need to wrapped up in multiple layers of plastics. Do an assessment of all the products and ask the vendors to not use plastic packaging for non-breakable items.

Create a reverse supply chain that ensures all packaging material is returned at source

Charge customers extra in case they opt for plastic wrap of their deliveries. Provide a discount to those ok with eco-friendly deliveries. England has cut its plastic bag use by 85 per cent since a 5 pence charge was introduced on plastic bags last October.

Optimize the size of the box and packing materials used for packaging based on the product size.

Stop printing bills on A4 sheets and just send them on email unless requested by customers A nominal additional cost could be levied for paper bills if requested. This would discourage paper usage.

STOP selling plastic bags and plastic straws online. Plastic bags are being banned in many cities. Take a stand against plastic bags and straws and stop selling them on your platform.

Science Advances magazine 2107 estimates that the world’s oceans now have 96 bn metric tonnes of plastics with 5-13 mn metric tonnes being added each year. Virtually every plastic that was ever made still exists in some shape or form on the earth.

One truck load of garbage is emptied in our oceans every second.As of 2015, approximately 6300 Mt of plastic waste had been generated, around 9% of which had been recycled, 12% was incinerated, and 79% was accumulated in landfills or the natural environment. If current production and waste management trends continue, roughly 12,000 Mt of plastic waste will be in landfills or in the natural environment by 2050. - Science Advances, July 2017.